Fun with flapjacks

For quite a while now, I've wanted to try out a flapjack recipe which I came across in Mary Berry's cookbook (the complete reference is the same as that for the sponge traybake recipe, pp.152-153). My baking grandmother (the Mary Berry of the North) has always made flapjacks and so I decided to have a go myself. How hard could they be...?

Well quite difficult actually, at least much more difficult to get right than I had thought.

The recipe went as follows:

• 225g Margarine (I used butter)
• 225g Demerara Sugar
• 275g Rolled Oats
• Two table spoons of golden syrup

I melted the butter over a low heat, then added the sugar and the golden syrup. I then threw in around 150g (less than the recipe, since at this stage the mixture looked like the right consistency- in retrospect I think I might have added up to 200g, since the flapjacks are rather chewy and sticky without the extra oats). I stirred them all together and then took the pan off the low heat. I spooned the mixture into a greased baking tray (Mary Berry recommends only lightly greasing the tray). I then put the mixture in the oven at 160 degrees centigrade for 35 minutes.

I think I may have greased it too much; in the oven the butter seemed to bubble violently away from under the mixture- although I took the tray out of the oven after the allocated time, the edges were much browner than the middle of the mixture, which still seemed quite moist. Anyway, I left the tray to cool for around 15 minutes (as specified) and then cut the mixture up into twenty five different flapjacks. The most difficult stage involved taking the flapjacks out of the tray. I would recommend leaving the whole mixture to cool for longer (say half an hour) before you try to move the flapjacks, as they become much easier to manoeuvre when cold. Some of the flapjacks actually fell apart while I was transporting them- I found that since they were still relatively warm, I could group the pieces together and reform the flapjack shapes. When left to cool, they more-or-less resembled the original flapjack square.

The mixture before it went in the oven.

So my advice to anyone attempting this recipe is to leave the mixture in the oven for the allocated time BUT do only add a tiny bit of grease to the tray and leave the whole mixture for at least half an hour before you attempt to cut out the flapjacks. I'd also suggest using a pallet knife or similar, since I found the spatula I used was too thick.

The finished product...they lost their shape a little when I tried to lift them out of the tray.

 

Winter crumble

Everyone loves a crumble, especially when the winter nights draw in and the temperature plummets. To celebrate a cold, crisp winter's day yesterday, I decided to make a good crumble. I'm a big fan of Nigel Slater, and his current TV programme, Dish of the Day. In one recipe, Slater used bananas in his crumble, which I found rather intriguing so decided to use bananas in one part of the crumble just in case they proved too sweet (they didn't, thankfully).

I have an old crumble recipe from a student cookbook I first started using nearly a decade ago, so used that for the crumble topping and adapted Nigel Slater's recipe using only 1 banana, two apples (Royal Gala, from Newark market) and some sultanas. 

The crumble topping needs:

• 200g plain flour
• 125g caster sugar
• 75g butter
• 75g rolled oats

Rub the butter into the flour using your fingers, then stir in the caster sugar and the rolled oats. Meanwhile, slice the apples (up to three) length-ways and stick them in a baking tray (around 30cm x 20cm x 10cm is ideal). Slice the banana into discs, then add around 50g of sultanas. Add a squeeze of lemon juice and 25g of caster sugar over the fruit. Then pour on the crumble topping, put in the oven for 25mins at 180 degrees centigrade and watch the topping become brown and crispy.

Some crumble-making photos:

You don't need to peel the apples, just core them and cut them into segments.

Stir in the sugar and rolled oats to the breadcrumb-like flour and butter mixture.

Cover the fruit in 25g of caster sugar and a squeeze of lemon juice. I placed the bananas in one small part of the crumble--if you're not sure of the taste then I'd recommend this tactic.

Crumble mixture covers the fruit.

And the finished product!

Sponge tray bake

This blog post has been a long time coming...I've been rather busy lately, including a trip to Paris in which I found some brilliant ways of serving couscous and boeuf bourguignon-- the former is great with fried merguez and harissa separate to the stew/couscous, and the latter is brilliant with tagliatelle/spaghetti!

So I found myself somewhat housebound the other day, recovering from a minor op, and decided to do some baking with what I had in the flat. Not a lot, but enough to make a very simple sponge tray bake. 

I've never tried baking a tray bake before, but the idea seemed (and is) simple enough. I've said previously that I dislike the chemical side to baking, and with a tray bake that more-or-less disappears. Indeed, you simply put everything into the mixing bowl at the same time and mix it all up, before spooning it into a tray.

I used a classic Mary Berry recipe (from her book Mary Berry's Ultimate Cookbook (London: BBC, 2003)), which was really simple:

• 225g butter
• 225g caster sugar
• 275g self-raising flour
• 4 eggs 
• 4 tablespoons of milk

Combine them all in a bowl, give them a good stir for about 2 minutes and then spoon them onto a greased roasting tin (Mary Berry recommends 30cm x 23cm, but mine was more like 30cmx 15cm and it fitted fine.)

Leave to cook at 180 degrees centigrade for about 35 minutes (in the fan oven it was cooked after 25). 

I found that dusting it with some icing sugar, as Mary Berry recommends, worked much better than with caster sugar--what I normally use to dust Victoria sponges.

I'd recommend only base-lining the tin with any greaseproof paper, as it can eat into the sponge otherwise (see the lemon drizzle post).

Cut into bitesize pieces- it's enough for 30 or so pieces.

Et voici les résultats:

Cut into nice bitesize chunks!